Earth Day

Today, in celebration of Earth Day, I went to my favourite nursery and bought three fruit trees.  Okay, to be perfectly honest I bought three fruit trees because my favourite nursery had them on sale because it was Earth Day.  'Bargain' should be my middle name.

They were a gravenstein apple, red bartlett pear and italian prune plum.  We planted them in the north field where they joined three other small fruit trees that were planted last year.

The most amazing thing though was that they got planted the same day they were bought.  I have a bad habit of buying plants and then taking forever to actually get them planted.

Also in the northwest corner of that field I planted a walnut tree that has been waiting for a real home for the last couple of years or more.  It was planted next to where our Irish Setter Megan is buried

Jake gave up trying to get us to throw a toy, and relaxed in the sun.

Luna not so much.  She kept out of the way when the weedeater was going, but otherwise was back and forth.  Checking on us, checking on 'her' sheep, herding a chicken, trying to steal Jake's ball, anything but settling down.  She tried to have a game of soccer in the hay field, but now the sheep aren't grazing it any more, the grass is getting long and the ball is much harder to push around, so that didn't last long.

Thankfully one of the family is mechanically minded.  David replaced a lot of the wiring on the tractor and it is running again.  Larry did some cleaning up of the old manure piles, and made it into one pile.   David will bring manure from the horse farm across the road to add to the pile, and it will be spread on the garden next year.

I've decided that Thursday is going to be garden report day, so here goes. 

The currant bushes in the north field are looking really good, with lots of fruit coming.

The rhubarb I planted there last year looks good too.

The broad beans are about 10 inches high.

The salad greens are really looking like little lettuces now, and the onion sets have sent up some good looking leaves.

More potatoes are showing through.  I raked the hills yet again, and then put some of that sheep fencing around for a little while.  That at least stops the dogs from walking through, as we seem to never remember to shut the gate.

On the other side of the raspberries, all the seeds I planted last week are showing up.  The arugula on the right is really enthusiastic, and the lettuce on the left is also well up.  At the top of the rows, the spinach and carrots are just barely showing, but I have seen a few, and under the plastic the basil is just coming through as well.

Luna seems to keep to the paths in this part.

Happy Earth Day, and I hope you did something appropriate too!

PS  Happy Gotcha Day Jake!

Wet Wednesday

A drizzly day today.  Jake spent a lot of time out in the rain, sitting in the hayfield, on alert, and barking at nothing I could see.  By the time I got the camera to take a picture, he was coming back.  He went over to one of the trees by the garden gate, and I went out and asked him if he wanted to come in.  This is what he did.

He  is a funny guy.  After we do our walk in the morning, even if the weather is bad he quite often does not want to come in.  Calli can't get in fast enough, and get on one of the dog beds in the basement.  Usually Luna comes in if given the choice, but when I ask Jake, he just lies down and looks at me.  I have looked out from the kitchen window and will see him sitting or curled up on the driveway in sun, light rain, and even light snow, quite happy to be out there and keep an eye or ear on what is going on.

He was found in 2005 huddling under a bush up a mountain by some dirt bikers.  No one seemed to be looking for him, and no owner was ever found.  He went to live with the friend of the sister of the person that found him, but she realized after a month that he needed to be somewhere else, as it wasn't working out too well with her family and other dog.  An ad was sent out to members of our dog club, we rushed off to see him, and he was ours.  Well almost, first he had to pass one test.  The woman brought him over to our place and I took him in the field with the chickens, on leash of course.  He pulled towards the chickens, I said 'neh' in the back of my throat, and he came back to my side.  I tried it a few more times, and then took him off leash, and same result.  He passed with honours!! and was ours.  As I started writing this post I realized that it was 5 years ago yesterday that we first met him, and 5 years ago tomorrow that he came home to stay.  I took these pictures when we went to see him. 

And these two days later when he came home.  Calli was not really impressed with him to start, but before long was enjoying his company and started to play with him.

We had guesstimates of 6 months and 10 months as his age, so called him 8 months.

Jake really is an amazing dog, and we are so lucky to have him in our lives.

And as for me on this drizzly day, I didn't sit out in the rain.  I figured it was a good opportunity to get some jam done.  Well first off was making mango chutney.  I always seem to put that one off as long as I can.  I think it is having to peel and cut up all those mangos, apples and onions that makes me procrastinate so much.  I did have a few people that were a little... upset... that I didn't have any mango chutney at the last market I was at.  So, I bit the bullet and got a batch done.

After that I did a batch of Campbell Valley crabapple jelly.  It is always so pretty looking in the jar.

I'm at one farmers' market a weekend from this Saturday until the last weekend in May, and then we will be back into two a weekend.  No more jam making procrastination for me:(

An imposter poster, sort of

On Sunday we did an egg run to White Rock, and the dogs stayed at home.  Meredith was home, and she took them for a walk in the afternoon through the back bush.  She took the camera along.  It is always interesting to see what other people take pictures of, so here are some of hers.  It was an absolutely beautiful day.

The dogs of course enjoyed themselves

The trilliums are turning pink, and a wild cherry is just loaded with blossoms. 

A visitor

And back at the house

Thanks Meredith:)

Fun in the sun, umm drizzle

We went down to the sandbar on the river this afternoon.  The only stick the dogs found was a water logged one. 

 Calli couldn't find any rocks, so she had to make do with the stick.  We were mean and threw the stick in the water, where it sank like a... rock! So they all wandered around trying to find it.

Calli was the most successful at finding it

Because she had the best technique.

Sometimes Luna stole it.

Which made Jake very mad.

So he challenged Luna to a race

And he won!

Garden Report

I seeded a few more things this week, so wanted to report this, for my own sake.  They always say you should keep a record of your garden, but like many other things, I procrastinate and it never gets done.  Well this year I am hoping it will be different, and there will be pictures to boot! 

On Tuesday I seeded carrots and arugula, next to the broccoli.  Then yesterday I seeded spinach and salad greens.  Today we got the last of the garden spread with compost and rototilled in.  Under the tunnel greenhouse, I have planted basil.  That is in a bit early, well it is recommended here to be planted May 1, but since we are having a few warm days, I thought I would see what happens.  It likes warm soil and the heat, so does best when it is started under the hooped plastic, at least for me here.  For some reason Luna kept going in it, maybe she thought it was a giant agility tunnel?  Smudge the cat will usually treats those tunnels as her own personal sauna, and can be found laying in there on sunny days.  Everything has some sort of netting or fencing to keep it safe from the occasional wandering chicken.

 

I am spying a few more potato shoots just poking through.  The peas are growing, and sending out the first tendrils.  There was one tiny edible radish in the row that had been planted alongside the early salad greens.  The soil there looks rather compacted now, and is getting weedy.  Since I planted that stuff so early, I should have put the hoops and plastic over them too, and they wouldn't look as sad as they do.  The beets are going to have to be reseeded.  Some are up, but not looking too enthusiastic.

 

The kale is really trying to flower, and I am eating the tops as they start to show some yellow.  There are more kale seedlings showing up from some plants that I had at least a couple of years ago, so I will transplant some of them into a row.

The chickens love eating kale, so last year all the big coarse leaves got thrown over the fence to them.  Yay for recycling:)